Rescuers have found 20 more bodies buried under mud in the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong, taking the total number of flood-related deaths to nearly 130.

A rescuer has told Reuters by telephone that at least 102 bodies have been recovered from dozens of homes buried under tonnes of mud following Monday's landslides.

"The deeper we dig down, there are more corpses," the rescuer said.

Disaster management officials say they fear the death toll will climb, and a search by troops, firefighters, police and volunteers has intensified after the rains eased on Tuesday morning and the water started receding.

But heavy rain struck again in the afternoon.

"We cannot say when this rescue will end," a rescuer said.

"At the moment it looks unlikely that nature will smile on us soon."

Nearly 10,000 people have so far been evacuated to some 200 shelters in Chittagong, a city of nearly five million.

"We had shifted to the hills in Chittagong from far away places after rivers had swallowed our homes and land," said Mashiur Rahman, a father of five.

"But we are on the run again."

Landslides

Another two women were buried alive in a landslide in Bandarban hill district, south-east of Chittagong, on Tuesday.

Officials say lightning killed a further 10 people across the country on Tuesday.

Authorities in Chittagong say the flooding is so extensive that survivors were having difficulty finding dry ground to bury the dead, officials said.

"[It] looks like a sea of mud as I move around places with strings of homes buried under heaps of clay and debris," said an army officer helping the rescue operation.

Officials and rescuers have blamed the landslides partly on residents clearing trees and other vegetation to build homes despite warnings by environmental experts.

Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the army-backed interim Government, has visited the disaster-hit areas and vowed to take action against those responsible for clearing the hills.

Road traffic in Chittagong was still severely disrupted, but train services and flights to and from the city have resumed, officials said. Port operations also partially resumed.

Rivers burst their banks in other parts of the country.

"Nearly one million people living on river islands and in low lying areas have already been marooned in northern and eastern regions of the country," an official of the disaster management ministry said.